For those that suffered through classes in planning school in order to hack Illustrator and Photoshop to show streetscapes, behold Streetmix. You can drag and drop transit elements like light rail, streetcars, buses and bike lanes. You can add street furniture like benches, way finding signs, transit shelters, parklets and trees. You can adjust the width of the lanes and change the type of plantings. — untappedcities.com
The new Court of Justice building in Hasselt, Belgium designed by a team comprising, Berlin-based J. MAYER H. Architects and local firms a2o-architecten andLensºass architecten, officially swung its doors open to the public on September 13th. Donna Sink felt "This looks SO BEAUTIFUL! I saw it from the Hasselt train station last March and it literally took my breath away - it makes a great statement on the skyline. To see the interiors and details are so well considered makes me happy".
John Southern penned a review of (a book I have been wanting to read, since I first saw a blurb for it a few weeks ago) Joe Day's "Corrections and Collections: Architectures for Art and Crime" (2013, Routledge). Therein he concluded "Joe Day makes it clear that we are... View full entry
The owner of Hill House is Scott Croyle, senior vice president of design at HTC. At two bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a study, the home is just large enough to share with his wife and son. Its modest scale allowed Bernstein to emphasize quality materials over quantity of space.
"It's almost a negative value in that (tech) community," said Bernstein of over-the-top homes. "There's a real emphasis on not seeking a mansion right away."
— sfgate.com
Like any other technological device currently out there, newer 3-D printing machines aim to out-do the competition and take things to the next level. Enter Mebotics LLC, a group of four friends who spent the past year building the Microfactory. Becoming known as "the world's first Machine Shop in... View full entry
Given current growth trends, the world's population is expected to reach 9 billion people by midcentury. That also means a quadrupling in the number of cars to 4 billion by 2050 -- and that, said Ford, is a recipe for global gridlock that he argues will become "a human rights issue, not just an inconvenience."
For Ford [...] the only answer is to create a future where pedestrians, bicycles, and cars become part of a connected network.
— CNET
A couple of years ago, I took a temp job assisting an architectural model builder. It was an intense experience - meticulously crafting delicate materials into structural works of art. I became fascinated with the craftsmanship and artistic ability that goes into this work. The advent of 3D printing - as exciting as it is - poses a problem for this art form. If a machine can spit out a 3D version of a building, is the era of model-making coming to an end? — vimeo.com
Arki is an Augmented Reality platform for real-time visualisation of architectural models. By incorporating AR technology within the architectural design process, ARki is able to visualise 3d models for both design and presentation purposes, helping to create an immersive visualisation technique with multiple layers of interactivity. ARki can be deployed on any ios/ android device which allows the user to explore 3d data with an added level of navigational freedom. — darfdesign.com
Instead of specially engineering spacecraft components to fit into a rocket, NASA could densely pack materials like fiber and polymer into existing spacecraft and create the components while orbiting the planet. This cuts down on cost and opens up the possibility for larger spacecraft. — gigaom.com
The design and space organization simplifies the visual experience for passersby and visitors even more than current designs. It also provides unprecedented visibility into the store from nearly 315 degrees, including from the sides as mall visitors arrive from other points in the mall. In the photo above, the underside of the overhanding roof is visible, covered with stainless steel panels. The back wall of the store is medium-gray stone framing the back-lit graphic displays. — ifoapplestore.com
Donna Sink offered up her memories "I spent a summer living in that building. It's very lovely and graceful, though I like ‘suavely-curved’ much better as a descriptor! The views are unmatched, IMO, still. Breathtaking...Back then its only drawback was that it was very removed from the activity of the city
News Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune architecture critic tweeted "George Schipporeit, co-architect of Chicago's suavely-curving Lake Point Tower, once the world's tallest all-residential building, has died". Donna Sink offered up her memories "I spent a summer living in that building. ... View full entry
The ecosystem will consist of several different microbes, each of which plays a role in nutrient recycling and population control. The result is a closed ecosystem that will sustain itself with the addition of just light [...]
The result will be a stable, closed, microbial ecosystem that glows in the dark.
— RocketHub
Undergraduate researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, are developing a sustainable bacterial ecosystem that will be able to produce light. The "Biobulb" will use a lab-neutered version of the E. Coli bacteria (totally harmless) that has been encoded with the gene for... View full entry
Baumgartner+Uriu's "Animated Apertures", a housing tower in Lima, Peru, will be featured at the ArchiLab 2013 exhibition at the FRAC (Les Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain) in Orleans, France starting in September. [...]
Staying true to nature as possible, Herwig Baumgartner and Scott Uriu designed Animated Apertures to be "an interactive and intelligent building organism" as opposed to digitalized congruity.
— bustler.net
[It] is the same technology as we use in Holland. It’s made up of concrete caisson, boxes, a shoebox of concrete. We fill them with styrofoam. So with [these] you get unthinkable floating foundations [...]
The house itself is the same as a normal house, the same material. Then you want to figure out how to get water and electricity and remove sewage and use the same technology as cruise ships."
- Koen Olthuis
— The Atlantic Cities
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis sees the future of architecture floating out to sea -- quite literally. Responding to undeniable ecological shifts of rising sea levels and seasonal flooding, Olthuis has proposed floatable-projects all along the social spectrum, designing prefabricated multi-use... View full entry
"The Politics of Parametricism" conference at LA's Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) from Nov. 15-16 explores the vast complexities of Parametrics, the evolving design paradigm described as becoming the "avant-garde in architecture and design" and "the next 'grand style' of architectural movements." — bustler.net
It appears we are destined to be a generation of new-age nomads as a result of technology, constant career changes and unprecedented mobility. Is a constant search for how best to return to nature an inevitable side effect of modern life? [...]
[Justin Gargasz's] designs are created not only to shelter the wearer physically but as a play on the need to escape psychologically from a world filled with distractions.
— Core 77
Justin Gargasz's Sans Shelter line of wearable shelters offers three distinct designs of impromptu-tent jackets, in sleek nylon and waxed canvas models. Using methods of folding and wrapping he picked up while traveling in Northern India, the rather fashionable coats can be unpacked into tents... View full entry